[781] We must not confound this measure with the 5000 stadia mentioned in c. iv. § 4. The distance here in question is that taken along the southern coast of Arabia from the straits to Kesem, the ancient Cane, through which passes now, as in former times, the greater part of the perfumes collected in Hadramaut and Seger. But this harbour is about the middle, and not at the extremity of the cinnamon-bearing country. Gossellin.
[782] Cardinal Noris places these facts in the year of Rome 730, and quotes, besides Strabo, the historian Josephus. In following the last author, the Cardinal places the death of Obodas in the prefecture of C. Sentius Saturninus, about the year of Rome 740. After the death of Obodas, Æneas, afterwards called Aretas, took possession of the kingdom of the Nabatæans. Upon this Syllæus, the late king’s minister, went to Rome, and declared before Augustus that Æneas, or Aretas, had no right to the kingdom. How this corrupt minister was punished by Augustus may be seen in Nicolas of Damascus and in Josephus. This Aretas must have reigned for a long time, to at least the last years of Tiberius. Du Theil. “The interest attaching to this expedition, which promises so much for the elucidation of the classical geography of Arabia, has hitherto served only still further to perplex it.” The author of the article Marsyabæ in Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography, where the subject is discussed at some length.
[783] Called also Arsinoë, b. xvii. c. i. § 25. It was near Heroopolis, or Suez.
[784] Koft.
[785] This name is variously written in manuscripts. If Negra be adopted, as by Letronne, it is not the same town as the city of the Negrani above mentioned, which was in the interior; but, as Kramer observes, “Mire corrupta est hæc ultima libri pars.”
[788] This reminds us of the prophet Elijah and John the Baptist.
[789] Od. iv. 84.
[790] This subject was discussed in b. i. c. ii. § 34.